Uber wants to fight senior loneliness by collecting your old clothes

Tis the season for giving. On Saturday, Uber users in the UK can request an UberGIVING car to collect items that are no longer wanted. These items will be donated to Age UK – a charity that helps lonely, vulnerable, and isolated seniors – and sold through their network of thrift stores.

The free service can be requested through the Uber app between 11AM and 4PM, and is available in the following cities: Belfast, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, London, Manchester, Merseyside, Newcastle, Nottingham, Stoke, Southampton, Portsmouth, Sheffield and York.

An unspecified number of cars will be on hand to collect these second-hand items, such as clothes, shoes, books, toys, fashion accessories and household goods, which will be sold to fund the vital work of AgeUK.

Figures from Age UK paint a stark picture of how many British seniors feel isolated and lonely, with 1.4 million feeling cut off from society. Depressingly, a third of those surveyed – 3.6 million – feel as though television is their main form of company.

This initiative from Uber will go some way to alleviating that. The average bag of donations to Age UK nets them £10 (about $12.60), and allows the charity to run lunch clubs, exercise classes and befriending services.